Escape
The Time Machine
by H.G.Wells
adapted by Irving Rabitch

Originally broadcast October 22, 1950 

Cast
Announcer
Dudley
Falla
Wena

ANNOUNCER: Tired of the every day routine? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you...ESCAPE!

MUSIC

ANNONCER: Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today, for a half hour of high adventure. 

F/X: cymbals clang

Escape with us now, to the year one-hundred-thousand and eighty; and a world where beauty and terror live side-by-side. As H.G. Wells describes it in his immortal story, "The Time Machine". 

MUSIC

FALLA: Dudley, you must be mad! A Time Machine?

DUDLEY: Yes, my friend, a time machine. 

FALLA: This thing?

DUDLEY: This very thing.

FALLA: This contraption? This framework mad of quartz and bronze and ivory? With its levers and its dials, and its seat in the middle? This is the result of three years hard work? 

DUDLEY: I promise you, Falla, that on this machine, a man can go wherever he likes in time. By working these levers a man can choose his century, his year, his very day. 

FALLA: Oh for. . .really, old man. 

DUDLEY: Time is only a kind of space. If we can move about in all the other dimensions of space, why not in time too?

FALLA: Oh, it's impossible. Out of the question. 

DUDLEY: Well, what of the journeys I've already taken on this little contraption? 

FALLA: I'm afraid you've been having a bad dream.

DUDLEY: Very well, you shall have proof, my friend. 

FALLA: How?

DUDLEY: Just climb on, Falla. Sit in the seat beside me, face these ivory dials, and I'll take you for a little spin. 

FALLA: Well, you, you mean right now?

DUDLEY: Right now. 

FALLA: In case this thing should take off like the flying red horse are there any, um, any. . .

DUDLEY: Any preparations? No Falla. You won't need any luggage on this trip, not even a toothbrush. You'll be back here in my laboratory in less than a minute. 

F/X: footsteps, clanking, someone climbing into machine. 

FALLA: Alright, I'm on. Now what?

DUDLEY: Hold tight, it sways a good deal, I'd hate to lose you.

FALLA: Heh, I can't be frightened, Dudley.

DUDLEY: Then you're braver than I am. Tell me, what time is it?

FALLA: It's, um, just twelve-noon. 

DUDLEY: Before we start I want to adjust this control a bit. 

F/X: Hi pitched squeal, clanking.

DUDLEY: Hmm

FALLA: Is, um, is everything ship-shape? 

DUDLEY: Tell me, did you notice anything, just then? 

FALLA: Only a noise, a humming noise, nothing else. 

DUDLEY: And what time is it?

FALLA: You just asked me old man, it's twelveÑthat's odd, my watch says eleven o'clock. I could have sworn it was noon a moment ago. There must be something wrong with it. 

DUDLEY: It's only that I touched the lever to test it, and we've gone forward a full day. Twenty three hours, at any rate. 

FALLA: Yes, but, Dudley. . .

DUDLEY: (INTERRUPTING) finished scoffing, Falla? 

FALLA: Yes, yes, I believe I have. 

DUDLEY: Then hold tight, this will be the real article. 

FALLA: I'm ready Dudley.

DUDLEY: Good man. Well, say goodbye, Falla.

F/X: High pitched humming begins again and continues on.

DUDLEY: Say goodbye to nineteen-hundred and fifty.

F/X: Bang

F/X: Wind begins and continues on.

FALLA: We went off with a shattering jar, with the machine swaying under us. The walls of Dr. Dudley's laboratory suddenly fell away. Night was speeding after day like the flapping of a plight wing. I saw the sun, hopping across the sky. Leaping swiftly across it every second. And every second marking a day. I saw the moon spinning through her quarter like a ball, from new to full, all in a twinkling of an eye. Trees grew and blossomed like puffs of smoke, and then passed away. All for the while we were going faster. Now our pace was a year a second. So that second by second the white snow flashed across the world, and was followed by the bright, brief spring. And still we went on, into the future. 

DUDLEY: (YELLING OVER NOISE) How do you feel, FALLA?

FALLA: Very weak, very dizzy.

DUDLEY: Don't let go, don't fall off!

FALLA: Where are we? How far have we come? 

DUDLEY: We're in one-hundred-thousand and fifty-and sixty-and seventy!

FALLA: That's enough! Stop it! I can't stand it any more. Stop it!

F/X: Wind and hum die down until silent. 

DUDLEY: FALLA, you alright?

FALLA: Yes, I. . .I believe so. No broken bones. What happened. 

DUDLEY: Not sure, must have stopped too suddenly. 

FALLA: Where are we, Dudley? 

DUDLEY: Look around for yourself. A wide lawn, a beautiful, vast garden. . .

FALLA: I meant, geographically. 

DUDLEY: Just where we were when we started. Where my laboratory stood. 

FALLA: And the year, Dudley? What is the year now? 

DUDLEY: One-hundred-thousand and eighty. 

MUSIC

FALLA: It seemed absolutely incredible. A dream. And a pleasant one, for the garden in which we found ourselves was beautiful and summery, with an unexpected perfume about it, almost like platine. At some distance we could see a large and imposing building, and everything was quiet and peaceful. But almost too much so. And a sense of strangeness, an incredible strangeness sent a shiver up my spine. 

DUDLEY: One-hundred thousand and eighty. Falla, do you, want to go back?

FALLA: Yes. I rather think I do. 

DUDLEY: Let's go back. 

F/X: high pitched moan begins is heard frequently

FALLA: Dudley!

DUDLEY: From over there, in the bushes. 

FALLA: It sounded human.

DUDLEY: Come on!

F/X: footsteps running in gravel.

FALLA: Why, it's a child! Seems to be a very small girl!

DUDLEY: There's been a beast here of some kindÑstruggled with her--look at the marks on her arm. 

FALLA: Now, my dear, you'll be alright now, you won't be harmed. Of course she wouldn't understand English.

DUDLEY: She's motioning us to go with her.

FALLA: What about the animal? Did you see it?

DUDLEY: No, not a glimse. Too fast for us.

FALLA: Perhaps we'd better go back, Dudley. The girl seems to be alright now. 

DUDLEY: Leave her like this?

FALLA: Yes, yes, I've had enough.

DUDLEY: Well they haven't old man, because they're here, all around us. 

MUSIC

FALLA: They had crept up on soundless feet to surround us. The little people of this era. And the girl we'd saved was not a child, but a full grown woman. They all stood four feet high in simple tunics. Beautiful creatures, but terribly frail with a plump and soft kind of frailty. They were like eerie figures in a dream. And all we could here was the rustling of their clothes as they circled happily around us, their faces weaved in smiles. 

F/X: rustling, small noises

FALLA: Why, they're not savage at all. They're very loving and gentle little people.

DUDLEY: Yes. There's something terribly wrong with them.

FALLA: Well how do you mean?

DUDLEY: They seem to have the minds of five year olds. 

FALLA: Well how do you expect them to be?

DUDLEY: Far ahead of us, of course. Incredibly ahead of us in knowledge and science. Look at them, children. 

FALLA: They seem to be happy, in this huge garden of theirs. Uh, Dudley, I've changed my mind. Let's stay. Maybe we should enjoy spending a few days with our little friends. 

MUSIC

FALLA: The little people led us home, into their valley. They lived in colossal buildings. Sleeping all together in one huge hall, eating in another, playing and frolicking in the sunshine. And we lived with them for days, in utter contentment. One afternoon, Dudley and I walked along the banks of the great river. 

DUDLEY: The little people all wear the same clothes, the same soft, hairless skin, the same feminine roundnes of limbs. 

FALLA: I wonder if it's because they're all vegetarians. 

DUDLEY: They're vegetarians because they have to be. You haven't come across any horses, or dogs, or cattle of any kind, have you? 

FALLA: No, now that you mention it?

DUDLEY: With good reason, all extinct by now. Just as the dinosaur is with us.

FALLA: Dudley, there's something strange here, something hidden away. Silent. Here in the year one-hundred thousand and eighty. 

DUDLEY: I felt the same way. I've taken the precaution of removing the control levers of the time machine and putting a master padlock on the main switches. I don't much fancy the idea of someone riding away with it into another century and leaving us here for the rest of our lives. 

FALLA: Uh, Dudley, do you know where we are?

DUDLEY: Uh, yes, this is where we landed. 

FALLA: I thought so. I wasn't sure. . .

DUDLEY: Why did you ask?

FALLA: What's happened to the machine?

DUDLEY: What? They've taken it away. They've stolen it! 

FALLA: This is where it was. It was right here.

DUDLEY: Look! Falla! Tracks! Here where they've drag it. Over here! Come along!

F/X: Scurrying 

DUDLEY: Down this path! Look! Right there! The monument.

FALLA: Those are brass doors on the base. 

F/X: Pounding

FALLA: Oh, they're locked!

DUDLEY: The machine! It must be in there!

FALLA: Yes! 

DUDLEY: Inside! We must get in there! Break down the doors! 

FALLA: How, how can we? 

DUDLEY: Here, use the ladders! 

FALLA: Alright, I'll try

F/X: clanging

FALLA: It's no good, Dudley! They're solid! We'll never break through!

DUDLEY: Never? Never? We've got to break through! (Both start crying)

FALLA: We may never go home again!

DUDLEY: Time machine! Time machine!

MUSIC

FALLA: We were caught in the year one-hundred-thousand and eighty. The time machine was gone. The brass doors of the monument held. Our retreat was cut off. The thin line by which we could make our way back home. Back to our own time. Our own people. Back to nineteen-fifty. And we had no way of communicating with the little people. Of asking them what they had done with the machine! There was nothing hostile in their attitude. They were more like simple wondering children. Only one, the young woman, Wena, whose life we had saved on the first day became really friendly. She went with us wherever we walked and brought us garlands and flowers and slept near us at night in the hall. And we in turn had taught her a few words in English. Now, we redoubled our efforts like men racing against the clock, so that we might speak to her and discover the secret of our immense loss. We were talking to her one night after the others had gone to sleep.

WENA: No, not we, Dudley, no.

DUDLEY: How can you be so sure your people didn't steal the machine? Aren't there any thieves among them? Are they all perfect?

FALLA: Not so loud, Dudley. You'll wake them. Besides, she doesn't understand.

DUDLEY: The thief must be sleeping somewhere in this hall. WenaÑTheyÑtakeÑmachine.

WENA: No, Dudley, no.

DUDLEY: Who then? Who?

FALLA: WeÑareÑfriends.

WENA: Yes.

DUDLEY: WeÑmustÑhaveÑmachine.

WENA: Yes, Dudley, yes.

DUDLEY: Who took machine? Other people? Not yours? 

WENA: Other? 

FALLA: What about those doors, Wena? Doors, open? 

WENA: No! No! 

DUDLEY: Wena, machine. In there, must open. 

WENA: No! No! Not open! 

DUDLEY: Alright, go to sleep. Get some rest. 

WENA: Yes, Dudley. 

DUDLEY: What's to become of us, Falla? Are we caught here in this century? To spend our lives with the little people and their secret? 

FALLA: We'll go back to the monument tomorrow. We'll find a way of breaking in. Goodnight Dudley. . . (PAUSE) Dudley?. . .Dudley! 

DUDLEY: (weakly). . .yeah?...

FALLA: Did you just?. . .There it was again!

DUDLEY: What? 

FALLA: Something on my face. Cold, filthy to the touch! On my face and in my hair! It's cold! It's death! Dudley! 

DUDLEY: You're right, there's something in here with us! Smells of the grave! What was it? 

FALLA: I don't know! But look at them! Look at the little people! 

DUDLEY: It's as though they've been stampeded! Let's get out of here! I want some fresh air. 

MUSIC 

FALLA: We went quickly from the hall, and outside, away from the little people. The moon was full, just over head, and it was close to dawning. There was a faint sound speeding close behind us. And we turned, our nerves ragged, our muscles tensed. But it was only Wena, coming swiftly to join us. 

WENA: Dudley, I'm afraid! Dark! 

FALLA: Then there IS something. 

DUDLEY: What do you mean, Wena? Dark, what. . . 

WENA: Dark things! Dark place! Night! 

FALLA: Why should they be afraid of the night, Dudley? 

DUDLEY: It's not the night alone. Dark place, that's our clue. 

FALLA: Perhaps it's something underground! 

MUSIC 

FALLA: It was another day. We had wandered into a lovely, wooded place, about a mile from the community. Suddenly Wena screamed. 

WENA: (GASP) Falla! 

FALLA: We stopped short. A pair of glaring eyes were fixed upon us. As we stood there, petrified, the thing, a little ape-like figure rushed across our path and disappeared in the clearing about thirty yards away. 

FALLA: What was it? 

DUDLEY: I couldn't see it too well. It seemed to be a dull white, with white hair on its head and on it's back. 

FALLA: It looked like a small ape! 

DUDLEY: It was running on all fours. With its arms held very low. 

FALLA: Wena, Wena what was it? 

WENA: Morlox! A Morlox! 

DUDLEY: Who are the Morlox? What are they? Wena tell me! 

WENA: No, no! 

DUDLEY: Let's go over and see where it disappeared. Come along, Falla. 

MUSIC 

FALLA: In the clearing we found a round, well-like opening. Dudley and I leaned over and looked down a deep shaft. A small white creature was retreating down a ladder in the well. Like a human spider, its large, white eyes watching me as it went swiftly down. Then it disappeared in the shaft. 

DUDLEY: Falla, did you see it? Like an ape! 

FALLA: Yes, but also like a man. 

DUDLEY: So there are two species of men in this world! 

FALLA: Yes. 

DUDLEY: The little people above the ground, and this obscene thing, this bleached monster below. 

FALLA: That white look. Common to animals that live in the dark. Like huge rats. Like worms that are cold to the touch. I know, because they've touched me. . . 

DUDLEY: Falla, you can feel the air being sucked down into the shaft?

FALLA: Yes.

DUDLEY: The earth must be tunneled enormously here under our feet. These monsters must live in the tunnels. 

FALLA: I think we know now who stole our time machine.

DUDLEY: Yes, then

FALLA: Then we'll go down and have a look.

WENA: No! No not go!

DUDLEY: Why not, Wena?

WENA: Morlox! You never come back! 

FALLA: We must have our machine, my dear. You wait for us here.

WENA: No! No!

MUSIC

FALLA: And so we went down. Our heels ringing on the small, metallic bars that were meant for creatures so much smaller than us. Down we climbed. Down. . . down. . . ever in darkness. Ever it seemed, into the center of the earth. . . Into the core of the world. . . 

FALLA: How much longer?

DUDLEY: We won't know until we reach the bottom. Can't be much further. Do you hear that? Like machinery. We're almost there. 

FALLA: Thank heaven for that.

DUDLEY: Alright Falla, I'm on the bottom. Come along, just a few more steps. Now, give me your hand, Falla. Good. We're here.

FALLA: Yes, in the land of the Morlox. 

DUDLEY: Do you have a match? 

FALLA: Yes, here. 

F/X: match striking

DUDLEY: There seems to be a large vaulted cabin at the end of this passage. 

FALLA: What do you, suppose they'll do if they catch us? 

DUDLEY: I have no idea. Better take care not to be caught. Ah, another match. 

F/X: match striking

FALLA: ThatÑthat throbbing noise. . . 

DUDLEY: Probably their ventilating system, pumping the air down. There must be thousands upon thousands of these Morlox living under the earth. 

FALLA: We haven't seen any yet, except for our friend who came down ahead of us. Why do you suppose they wanted our time machine?

DUDLEY: I think they wanted us. Not the machine. 

FALLA: And we've come to them.

DUDLEY: We must! It's our only chance. Falla, if that noise does come from air pumps,

FALLA: Yes, 

DUDLEY: Why's it so stuffy here, so oppressive?

FALLA: Dudley, what's that smell?

DUDLEY: Blood. Light another match. 

F/X: match striking

FALLA: Dudley, look straight ahead. On the white metal table. 

DUDLEY: Set for a meal. 

FALLA: Yes. With a small haunch. . . meat.

DUDLEY: We know that the cattle are extinct.

FALLA: Then, what do they feed on, these Morlox? 

DUDLEY: Don't you know?

FALLA: Yes, I know. 

DUDLEY: Oh, another match!

FALLA: Yes, right here. Dudley, I have no more. I've used our last match.

DUDLEY: Alright we'll have to go back. We know the secret now, anyway. Morlox, living here, under ground, that are masters of this age. And our friends up above are fatted cattle. Fed by the Morlox. Clothed, supplied and housed until the day when they're cut out of their herd and brought underground as food. This is the future you're looking at. This is what we men of the twentieth century shall come to. 

FALLA: DUDLEY!

DUDLEY: What is it! 

FALLA: I felt hands! Cold hands!

DUDLEY: Take one of these ladders

FALLA: Yes, give it to me.

DUDLEY: Use it as a weapon! Lash out against it!

F/X: groans from Morlox

DUDLEY: Falla they're here beside me! 

F/X: yells from Falla and Dudley

DUDLEY: Use the ladder, man, use the ladder! 

FALLA: They're all around us!

DUDLEY: This way! Follow me this way, back this way. 

MUSIC

FALLA: We went back in that evil darkness. Fighting every step as we went. Back to those projecting bars. Kicking and clawing ourselves loose from their talloned grasping hands. And climbing up again. Up toward daylight and freedom. Away from their stench and the eagerness of their icy hands. And they did not follow, for daylight was their enemy, and their great fear. And we lived among the lush gardens of the little people like prisoners, like men without reprieve, like men who are dead though they still walk the earth. For the time machine was locked away behind great brass doors. And we knew we could never force them open. Then one day, Wena told us of an old building, an ancient, sagging structure that had survived through many ages and was filled with many curious objects. 

DUDLEY: A museum! That's what it must be! A museum, Falla! Perhaps from some earlier time!

FALLA: I'm in no mood to go looking at a museum.

DUDLEY: Don't you see? Specimens are medically sealed in museums. Perhaps there are things, weapons, machinery. Something we can use!

FALLA: Yes! Yes of course! If we could find some dynamite or gunpowder or something!

DUDLEY: We could blast those doors! We could get in! 

FALLA: Where is this place, Wena? This old building that no one ever goes near?

WENA: I take you, it not far.

FALLA: A chance, old man! A slim one but a chance, nonetheless!

MUSIC

FALLA: All day we wandered through the great ruined halls. The building had been deserted, unused for perhaps a century. The child-like men of that time had long since ceased to care about any thing but their own personal comforts. It was late afternoon and growing dark when we came upon the chemical section. We hads found nothing useful to us until then. Now came the worst disappointment of all. 

DUDLEY: And it's dust. All of it. It's been dust for centuries.

FALLA: Another dead end. 

DUDLEY: It's hopeless. We were out of our minds to hope that nitrites would retain their form for a hundred-thousand years.

WENA: We go now? If nothing here? 

DUDLEY: Wait, just a moment. There's something in this case.

FALLA: Well you can break it with your lever. 

DUDLEY: Stand back a little. 

F/X: glass breaking

DUDLEY: A box of matches. Medically sealed. 

FALLA: Wait, let me see it. 

F/X: shuffling noise

FALLA: Why they're perfect! They're not even damp!

DUDLEY: What should we do with them? Burn down those brass doors?

FALLA: Well you'd better keep them, you can't tell. . . 

DUDLEY: Falla! 

FALLA: What.

DUDLEY: On the floor, you see them? Small, narrow footprints leading away into the darkness at the end of this gallery!

WENA: Dudley!

FALLA: We'd better go! 

DUDLEY: Pick Wena up and carry her. We're going to have to make a run for it! 

FALLA: Now, don't be frightened, my dear!

F/X: Morlox groans begin 

FALLA: It'll be alright.

DUDLEY: Go on! Run!

MUSIC

FALLA: We came out of the gloom of that place into the deeper gloom of dusk, and suddenly we saw. We were trapped! All around us were the Morlox. They were there by the thousands! Surrounding us and coming closer. The long even line of deathly white, their eyes blinking in the half light their tiny mouths alive with appetite. 

DUDLEY: Falla! The matches!

FALLA: I have the matches. 

DUDLEY: Light a fire here. The forest is dry. Hurry man! We'll have an inferno here in a minute! Our little friends don't like light, or heat. 

F/X: fire crackling

FALLA: The fire leaped high to the heavens and the country side was ablaze. The Morlox turned in fear, blinded by the glare. Some of them plundered into the raging flames and the rest faded away like a fog. Dudley had left a narrow passage way for our retreat and we fled down a long corridor of leaping flames and blistering heat. We fled toward safety to the community of the little people. As we ran, we passed the huge monument with its great bronze doors that were locked tight in our time machine. And suddenly, in the glare of the distant fire, we saw something that stopped us short. 

DUDLEY: They're open! Falla -- the doors are open!

WENA: No! Not go in! Dudley, no!

FALLA: It's a trap! They're waiting for us inside!

DUDLEY: Waiting or not, we're going in!

FALLA: Dudley, it's suicide!

DUDLEY: It'll take me one minute to screw the levers on again, then I touch them and we're away!

FALLA: Alright, I'll try to give you your one minute.

DUDLEY: Good boy!

WENA: No! No go! Not leave me! 

FALLA: Now you, you my dear, you hold tight around my neck. You're coming home with us.

DUDLEY: Alright. Let's go! Wait. Look the machine! They haven't harmed it!

FALLA: I don't see them, yet.

DUDLEY: Come on now, quickly!

F/X: Banging

FALLA: The doors, Dudley! They're closed! 

DUDLEY: Ah, get in the seat. I'll be ready in a moment. 

FALLA: I waited for the hum that would signal our departure. There in the darkness the Morlox were finally upon us. Cold, persistent fingers swarmed over my body. Tugging at me and sucking me away from the machine. I held tight to Wena as a man hold fast to life. Tried to kick them away with my feet. 

WENA: Falla, Falla!

FALLA: Hurry, Dudley, hurry!

DUDLEY: I must fix these levers quickly or we're done! 

F/X: Humming begins

DUDLEY: There, Falla, we're away, we're gone!

FALLA: Yes, yes, we made it!

DUDLEY: Are you alright!

FALLA: I'm alright!

DUDLEY: Good. And Wena?

FALLA: Wena isn't with us. 

DUDLEY: What happened? 

FALLA: They tore her from my hands. The last minute. They got her. I tried to save her, I couldn't. I still have a piece of her tunic here in my fist. A little piece of her tunic, Dudley. Nothing else. 

MUSIC

FALLA: And so we came home again. Back into the very minute in which we had left. Back into twelve noon, October twenty-second, nineteen fifty. We were in Dudley's laboratory again, motionless. Sitting on the ridiculous contraption which he has called "Time Machine". Was it all a dream? Did any of it happen? Could any of it happen? Of course not. How stupid. Then what of this? What of this piece of thin, green silk I hold in my hand?

MUSIC